$50 Scratch-Off Loser

The Houston Chronicle, which today ran front-page story on the state’s $50 scratch off tickets, had me plunk down 50 big ones for the state’s priciest scatch-off ticket, the $130 Million Payout Bonanza. Now I’m ordinarily no bettin girl, but state officials swear the money’s for a good cause (educating Texas’ children) and not a bad gamble, which, translated, means a 1-in-nearly-7 chance of getting one’s money back, a 1-in-1.2 million chance of hitting one of the three top $5 million prizes.

So with my editors’ blessing, I traipsed down to my favorite East Side convenience store, pulled out a cool $50 from my pocket, and in a little girl voice I hardly recognized, said: “Please give me your most expensive lottery ticket.”

Salem, the friendly clerk from India who by the way, never plays the lottery, was delighted to sell this pricey ticket to this very infrequent lottery player, and happy to explain the rather intricate rules.

I scratched and scratched. But nothing giving. My $50 ticket was a big lottery loser.

On the bright side, I probably saved the paper the headache of figuring out who was the rightful owner of any prize money won on a ticket ordered up by editors.